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Sign to demand better pensions

Pensions aren’t easy to deal with. Yet we all rely on them for our retirement years. We need the government and regulator to deliver vital changes that will help us make the most of our pension savings.

We want to future-proof pensions

We think pensions should work both for those saving for retirement and those making decisions at retirement. Too often people struggle to make good decisions with their pension and this could ultimately lead to them getting a poor deal.

We want you to have more control of your financial future with a pensions system that really works in your best interests.

We’re calling on:

The government to publish a plan for the delivery of a fully-functioning pensions dashboard

The Financial Conduct Authority to introduce better safeguards and protections for pension savers when they reach retirement

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Saving for retirement

The government has committed to deliver the pensions dashboard – an online digital platform which has the potential to transform the pensions sector. We want to build on this commitment to ensure the dashboard makes pensions more accessible for consumers, rather than working in the interests of the pensions industry.

Above all, the pensions dashboard needs to be:

Trustworthy – dashboard providers must be regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority

Transparent – information about fees, charges and benefits must be displayed

Comprehensive – all pension schemes should be required to participate

Making decisions at retirement

Pensions suffer from worryingly low levels of consumer engagement. We want to see better safeguards and protections for disengaged savers who face important decisions about retirement.

The Financial Conduct Authority has proposed several measures that will combat this as part of its Retirement Outcomes Review. We want to make sure it goes ahead with proposals that ensure savers aren’t being ripped off at retirement.

Update

Peter Vicary-Smith gives evidence to the Work and Pensions Committee

As we launch the next phase of our pensions campaign, our CEO Peter Vicary-Smith is giving oral evidence to the Work and Pensions Select Committee.

This forms part of the Committee’s ongoing work on pension freedoms. We will be calling for greater safeguards for disengaged consumers, improved services to help consumers make informed choices and the need for better value pension products.

Work and Pensions Committee launches inquiry

Update

Government crackdown on pension scam cold calls

The government has announced new measures that will see tougher action on pension scammers and a crackdown on pension cold calls.

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According to latest figures, a staggering £43m has been taken by pension scammers since 2014, with victims losing an average of £15,000.

New measures announced include:

– a ban on all cold calling in relation to pensions, this extends to emails and text messages
– a tightening of HM Revenue and Customs rules to stop scammers opening pension schemes
– tougher actions to help prevent the transfer of money from occupational pension schemes into fraudulent ones.

Writing for Which? Conversation, Guy Opperman MP, Minister for Pensions and Financial Inclusion, explained that ‘these measures will ensure that no legitimate firm without an existing customer relationship will be able to cold call you about your pension’.

ACTION ON SCAMS

This is welcome news and a big win for those of you who’ve not only been pestered by these pension cold calls, but also fallen victim to them.

Which? money expert, Gareth Shaw, said:

‘Pension scams are costing retirees millions, so this action must lead to a crackdown on criminals stealing people’s hard-earned savings.

‘As fraudsters look for new ways to target even the savviest people, the regulator will need to make sure that these new protections are enforced to safeguard people’s money.’

We’re hopeful that today’s announcement will ensure that pension scammers are no longer able to get their hands on your hard-earned savings.

But, the fact remains that fraud is at record levels with scammers finding ever-changing ways to trick you out of your money. We want to see the government, financial regulator and businesses all do more to safeguard us from scams – help us convince them to take action by signing our petition today.

Win

18th April 2017

FCA launches Retirement Outcomes Review

In a win for our pensions campaign, the FCA has launched a wide-ranging investigation into how consumers are taking advantage of the pension freedoms.

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The pension freedoms have given consumers a lot more control over their finances at retirement, but the complexity of most pension decisions also means there is greater risk involved. We called for the regulator to publish a review of the impact of the reforms to see how they have delivered for consumers.

Win

16th March 2016

Win! A pensions dashboard by 2019

In win for our pensions campaign, the Treasury has announced plans to deliver on our call for a pensions dashboard.

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Over a third of people approaching retirement age find it difficult to keep track of their pension pots. With the introduction of auto-enrolment for workplace pensions, more and more of us are going to be juggling multiple pension pots.

We called for a pensions dashboard system to be introduced to house all the information necessary to help savers make informed decisions about their retirement choices.

The Government has now committed industry to delivering this pensions dashboard by 2019.

Update

6th April 2015

New pensions freedoms kick-in

New pension freedoms started giving people greater flexibility on how to use their savings.

While we think it’s right people have more freedom over how they spend their savings, it’s also vital they are aware of the risks of making quick decisions.

Update

6th March 2015

Which? calls for better pensions

We’ve launched a new campaign to secure better pensions after our research reveals people’s pension pots could be at risk from poor value products and high charges.

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The Government’s pension reforms are set to give people more control over their pension pot. This makes it likely that more people will use income drawdown products, which allow them to take money out gradually each year.

High charges

However, our investigation uncovered several high charging drawdown products, including one that charges 2.76%. We think this is too high for the mass market and want to see a cap introduced on products sold to customers by their existing provider.

Based on a scenario of someone with the typical pension pot of £36,000, drawing down £2,000 a year, we calculate that a cap of 0.5% would leave someone in our scenario around £10,300 better off than with charges at 2.75%. A 0.75% cap would mean that they have a total of around £8,800 more over their retirement and a 1% cap would give them around £7,500 more.

News

Government cracks down on hidden pension charges

The Government has committed to greater transparency on hidden pension charges in a win for our Hands off my Pension campaign.

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We’ve been campaigning to ensure clear, consistent and regular information is provided to consumers about their pension charges.

Pensions minister Steve Webb said: ‘We’re taking action to ensure consumers have access to good quality pension schemes so they have the confidence to plan for their futures.’

However, this alone will not be enough to end rip-off schemes as people are often automatically enrolled by their employer and are unable to shop around.

We also need to see a cap on charges of 0.5%, to cover all new and existing workplace pension schemes, which could save consumers around £4.8bn just over the next 10 years.

In November 2013, we launched the ‘Hands off my pension’ campaign. More than 15,000 people supported our campaign and we received 7,000 comments which we presented to pensions minister Steve Webb.

Win

10th May 2013

Unfair workplace pension charges… banned!

We posed as a pensions consultant, approaching five different pension providers to set up auto-enrolment pensions for fake companies.

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We asked the pension providers to deduct our consultancy charges from these pension pots, which we knew would rip off any employees unfortunate enough to be enrolled in them.

The highest charge we submitted would’ve had employees paying £450 from their pension pot in their first year, and 7.5% of all contributions into their pension pot for five years.

We found that none of the pension providers objected to deducting these consultancy charges, even though they would’ve had a severe detrimental financial effect on those enrolled in the pension.

Shocked by our findings, we lobbied the government for a ban on these consultancy charges. Pensions minister Steve Webb announced a ban, recognising the real risk they pose of eating away at people’s hard earned money.